No parent should ever have to bury a child. It's tough enouugh for the kids to bury their parents, but at least there's some natural order that way. Burying a child, especially as they are about to bloom, is a horror too great for words.

If there was ever any doubt that issues such as voter ID laws and "Choose Life" license plates were nothing more than partisan, political issues, there should be no more after events of recent weeks in North Carolina.

Grumbling from school officials about having to wait until Aug. 25 to start the school year never went away when a state law defining a start date went into effect by popular demand in 2004, but the grumbling is getting louder. And it's finding some receptive ears in the N.C. Legislature. So if, like me, you don't want to see school start the first week in August or late July, brace yourself for another fight. I've been doing pushups at home already.